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Chapter 1

The pain worsened and I knew my arm was definitely broken. We ran and ran as fast as we could go. I was out of breath and was dripping with sweat. My legs felt like jelly, but he was gaining on us with ever step. I looked over at Sam and saw that his face was as red as a beat. I was bleeding badly from my cuts and my left leg was all scraped up. Our lives depended on getting to the end of the rainforest where the ocean would sit there waiting for us in the open. Then without warning Sam pushes me to the side and I land behind a bush in a swampy puddle of rain water. I lay there still on the floor of the rainforest hearing nothing but silence. Where is Sam? TWO AND A HALF WEEKS EARLIER
“Mom, do I have to go?” I gave her the puppy dog eyes so she would know I was serious. I mean I hate school auctions, what’s the point, we never get anything. Mom says she’s waiting for the perfect prize, but she never even bids on anything. “Isabel, you’ll have fun, you can hang out with your friends, Jamie and Sara.” She spoke like she was my best friend when she said this. “Mom they’re not even going.” “Well then you can watch with your brother.” “Mom, but...” “Isabel don’t you argue with me. You’re going and that’s finally” My brother is she serious. Sam is like a two year old in a 15 year olds body. I act older than he does and there’s a two year age difference. The only thing he’s good at and likes is sports. Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Track and Field, you name a sport and I bet you he plays that sport. He could be really smart if he actually did his homework, but now there’s just too much work to be done. “Isabel, you ready to go?” Sam, his voice was deep and ruff. “Yeah I’ll be right there.” I hope my outfit is ok. I still hadn’t changed since I got home from school. I guess my jeans and t-shirt would have to do. Today was Monday and I was so bored. I ran down the stairs and jumped of the last step. Sam stood there staring out the door as if he was looking for something important. “Whatcha doing.” “Ah, nothing lets go.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me out the door of our little four family San Francisco house.

The school gym was packed full of people. I saw some kids from my class going inside, but not many that were friends. Cars were parked all the way down the street, more than I had ever seen outside the school. As we climbed out of the car Sam ran over to his friends and they just walked away. I mean isn’t that kind of rude, no “hi” to my mom or me. My mom ran over to another mom and yelled, “I’ll meet you inside honey.” “Okay mom.” She gave me a half wave and walked away. I was alone now. Neither Jamie nor Sara was here. I decided to walk inside and find a spot to sit down. As I walked up the drive way I read the lists of prizes that were being auctioned off. Auction Prizes: -
A 100 dollar gift certificate to Barnes and Nobel -
A gift basket from Bath and Body Works -
An autographed surfboard from Kelly Slater -
An autographed picture and baseball from Manny Ramirez -
A gift certificate to a luxury spa and pool -
Two tickets to a Bruno Marz Concert -
A free tour of the Hersey’s factory -
A trip to the mall of America with five of your best friends -
Back Stage passes to a Britney Spears concert -
A two week trip to Honolulu Hawaii A 2 week trip to Hawaii! Could my school even afford any of that? Well I’m not paying for this am I? Am I? Well we would never in a million years win the trip anyways. “Wow. I guess auction night is popular.” I stared in amazement at the large groups of people everywhere. “Didn’t you notice all of the cars out front?” Sam. His friends must have ditched him already. I knew they wouldn’t be able to stand him the whole night, they never can. “Yeah, I saw that. There are just too many people crammed into a small place.” Well, I guess I lied the gym is pretty big, but there was still too many people in there. It was like shoulder to shoulder close and there weren’t that many chairs either. “So your friends ditched you huh.” I knew that would make him mad so I put a little emphasis on the end. He just looked at me with that grin on his face. “No, they didn’t ditch me. They simply had to go.” Yeah right. “Let’s just find somewhere to stand okay.” “Fine” The slight sound of resentment in his voice made me curios at why his friends had to leave.
As we weaved in and out of crowds looking for places to sit, I spotted my mom. We walked over to where she was seated and stood next to her. “Is the auction about to start?” I asked but not really caring what her answer was. “Yes, and they’re starting with the grand prize!” “The Grand prize?” I wondered that must be the trip to Honolulu Hawaii that was written on the poster out front. “Oh, a trip to Hawaii right?” “Yes, and were going to win that trip no matter what.” “What! What’s the starting price?” “I don’t know!” she said as happy as ever. I just stared at her wondering if this was really my mom. She would never do something like this. I was so confused? “Okay everyone let’s start the bidding for this beautiful trip to Hawaii at $1,500.” Did he say 1,500? He couldn’t have. I looked over at mom and sure enough she raises her hand as if saying I’ll pay $1,500. I really wanted to go to Hawaii, but I knew the auction price would rise fast. Never I my life had I been out of the Western part of the US before and I would like to sometime soon, but I didn’t want her to spend so much money. The auctionaire was now up to $5,000 and mom was still bidding. What was I going to tell dad? Or more importantly, how was he going to react? I looked over at Sam and saw that he happily found a place to sit and was texting away. The kid never went three feet without his phone, he always went over his minutes, and he never feels bad about the extra cost. “YES!” I look over at mom and saw that she was jumping up and down. Before I could even register what had happened she yelled to me, “WERE GOING TO HAWAII!”

Mom couldn’t contain herself the rest of the night. She started packing as soon as we got home and believe me the only possession she didn’t pack was our dog, Jake. She made us pancakes with M&Ms and chocolate chips for dinner and I don’t believe she even made them correctly. I tried to calm her down, but had no luck. I guess the adrenaline rush from wining really made her blood start pumping. “How long is she going to be like this?” Sam asked me. “I don’t know.” I replied “I think by the morning she would be fine.” “Good, because I can’t stand her like this anymore.” I had to laugh; the way he was talking was just too funny. He pushed me and I fell to the side but I still didn’t stop laughing. After a minute I stood up and walked over to the stairs to go up. As I walked up the stairs I heard Sam start to laugh which made me laugh too.